Scott Stinson: “I don’t know what to believe any more,” and other scenes from a by-election debate

Scenes from the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection

Candidates in the Sept. 6 provincial by-election in the riding of Kitchener-Waterloo gathered at the Waterloo Inn on Monday for a “candidates forum,” which was somewhat like a debate, but also not like one in that most of the questions came from the audience and there was almost no back-and-forth discussion between any of those on stage. My report on the proceedings, and a visit from Premier Dalton McGuinty to the riding earlier in the day, is here.

But the evening had some other lessons. Some random observations:

• It’s easy to see why by-elections tend to favour someone other than the candidate representing the sitting government. Liberal Eric Davis spent much of the evening defending attacks on his party not just from the other candidates, but from the audience members asking questions. Several of them had long preambles about economic problems and/or government waste before they got around to asking a question. (To be fair, there was an obvious partisan bent to most of the questions from the audience members, and they weren’t always anti-Liberal.) Mr. Davis’s favoured tactic was to focus his answer on Liberal accomplishments, or occasionally blame a problem on a previous government, which is tough to do when yours has been in power since 2003. An example: the Liberals were ridiculed for having not built a new Highway 7 between KW and Guelph, despite repeatedly promising to do so. Mr. Davis noted that this project as been stalled for 23 years, and that under previous NDP and PC governments, “it had moved nowhere for 14 years.” It has since moved about the same distance in nine years under the Liberals.

• One of the rare non-partisan audience questions came from a fellow who said, basically, that he doesn’t trust anyone from any party. “I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he said, mournfully. Not surprisingly, the candidates all said they could be trusted, though the NDP’s Catherine Fife deftly used the opportunity to point out that if one had trust concerns about the Liberals, they definitely shouldn’t be rewarded with a majority via the KW vote. Smooth.

• There are 10 candidates running for the Kitchener-Waterloo seat. Mercifully, the forum’s organizers reserved the stage seats for those from the three parties represented in the Ontario legislature, plus the Green Party. This brought shouts of displeasure from some attendees, one of whom, described by the local newspaper as a “perennial election loser,” was escorted from the premises by police when he made a bit of a scene that involved wearing a hard hat and loudly imploring the audience to consider “the Argentine Way.” Someone shot back: “This is Canada!” Zing. The Communist Party candidate also tried to disrupt proceedings before the forum began, but she took her seat eventually, possibly because the police were leaning in her direction. Later, an unidentified candidate managed to ask one of the audience questions, wherein he set back the cause of fringe candidates some distance by asking whether anyone wanted to restore the GST points that were removed by the federal government.

• One of the partisan questions aimed at PC candidate Tracey Weiler asked whether she supported the views of leader Tim Hudak. It came after an intro that painted him as an uber-conservative hawk. Ms. Weiler’s response that she would not “sit here and defend Tim Hudak” has caused much mirth in Liberal circles, despite the fact that she was correct in asserting that voters are selecting a local MPP, not choosing a Premier. Still, Ms. Weiler must regret the phrasing. You never want to hand your opponents a nifty sound bite.

• Unburdened by the prospects of potential victory, it was Green Party candidate Stacey Danckert who put forth two of the boldest ideas on the evening. She said Ontario should scrap the Clean Energy Benefit that gives a 10% discount on electricity bills, noting, correctly, that it would save a billion dollars and that as it stands it gives the greatest benefit to those with the highest bills — the wealthy. The former is a reason for the PCs to support the idea and the latter is a reason for the NDP to do so, but neither party will touch it and risk being THE PARTY THAT WANTS TO RAISE YOUR ENERGY BILL. Ms. Danckert also floated the idea of merging the public and Catholic school boards, arguing that it would save more money and make more sense than the ongoing labour fight with teachers. Also a bold idea, but one that no one would touch because look what happened to John Tory.

• Lastly, there were all sorts of kind words for Elizabeth Witmer, the former PC MPP whose resignation precipitated the need for a by-election. Everyone likes her. Except maybe the Argentine Way guy.